I really do despair. So cosseted have we become, so eagerly have we surrendered our own free will that we are incapable of saying to ourselves ‘no’, turning on our heels and walking away.
Jesus H. Christ on a little purple tricycle without a crash helmet, hi-viz jacket and bell, when did we become so hopelessly, unutterably, completely, uselessly pathetic?
Exhibit A from across the pond (don’t worry, the wind will blow it over here eventually):
The Oglala Sioux Tribe are asking for $500m (£316m) for healthcare, social services and child rehabilitation.
Well hang on, are we to suppose that Anheuser-Busch have been stalking the reservation making people drink that fizzy piss they pass off as the ‘king of beers’ at gunpoint?
Tribal elders say the lawsuit is a last resort after efforts to curb abuse through protests and policy failed.
On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation one in four children suffers foetal disorders caused by alcohol abuse.
Well stop fucking drinking, then. Jeeeeeeeeeeeesus. How is it the brewers’ fault? You can always, y’know, not buy the beer.
The lawsuit also names the nearby town of Whiteclay, Nebraska, which has four beer shops that sold nearly five million beer cans in 2010 despite having only about a dozen residents.
You’re suing an entire town because some people can’t pass by without buying their entire bodyweight in piss poor American beer? Perhaps you need to look at LSD consumption, because you’re bloody tripping.
Alcohol is outlawed on the reservation and the nearest town which allows alcohol is 20 miles (32km) away, Mark Vasina, president of Nebraskans for Peace, told the Associated Press news agency.
Right, so they have to travel 20 miles to buy the booze. . .
The lawsuit alleges that beer makers and the shop owners knew the alcohol would be smuggled into the reservation for consumption or resale.
OK, I see where you’re going with this, you want to persuade the courts that the act of selling beer is incitement to smuggle? And what happens when one of the shopkeepers turns round and says ‘Oh no, I’m not selling beer to you, you’re Sioux’? I think I can guess.
Meanwhile, Tom White, the lawyer representing the tribe, told the Associated Press news agency: “You cannot sell 4.9 million 12oz [356ml] cans of beer and wash your hands like Pontius Pilate, and say we’ve got nothing to do with it being smuggled.”
Yes, yes they can, because they’re not the ones moving it.
The Sioux nation was one of the proudest on the face of the Earth, now they hold everyone but themselves responsible for a section of their society who are alcoholics. Do you not mount some sort of customs style ‘border control’?
One final question, perhaps one for Leg-Iron if he gets to reading this, how much beer would you have to drink to have an adverse effect on your unborn child? A lot, I’m guessing, I don’t know what the human capacity by volume for beer is, but it seems odd there’s no mention of wine or spirits which would seem more likely candidates. This is just another story in the British press denormalising alcohol. Get used to it drinkers, because you were cheering when they went after us smokers. Alcohol; kills babies and ancient civilisations.
Meanwhile in the UK, some clot has been to court to have the practice of holding prayers before council meetings declared unlawful.
Now, I’ve no time for religion, but if people want to pray before hiking taxes and spunking it on that vital fact finding tour of the Seychelles, then go ahead, you ain’t hurting anyone.
Oh no, that’ll never do, you see Peter Bone, bless his little cotton socks, was ‘uncomfortable’ during prayers and not want to walk out of meetings because it would look ‘discourteous’ to the public.
Why should you feel uncomfortable? You could review your notes or something whilst the doddery old vicar pushes his nonsense, your decision not to take part is as valid as theirs to join in. If you’re that uncomfortable did it not perhaps occur to you to walk in after they’d had their prayers? You wouldn’t have missed anything and you wouldn’t have been discourteous to legions of the good townsfolk of Bideford who obviously turn out for these meetings.
No, now they’ll probably have to go outside and do it, then they’ll be passing local legislation to ban smoking in the vicinity. Thanks for that.
I couldn’t give a toss if church leaders are furious about it, but it is so undignified and makes you look pathetic. Really, banning harmless activities just because you don’t like it marks you out to be an arsehole of the highest order. Muppet.
You’d need a (honest) medic for the actual figures on how much booze causes foetal alcohol syndrome. It’s not going to be in ‘glasses of wine’ though, more like ‘bottles of gin’.
The irony is in the history of tobacco. Who was it who told Whitey about it, all those years ago?
In their moccasins, I’d be wary of drawing too much Righteous attention.
Re: the beer. It’s those nice pictures on those nice shiny tins that make the Native Americans buy the beer. I can guarantee in whichever court this frivolous lawsuit is presented, the judge won’t be saying “Oh FFS, are you for real?” Oh no, America has long since ditched holding people responsible for their own actions. Everything is always someone elses fault, particularly if lawyers can make a few million bucks out of class action lawsuits.
Re: the prayers. Would Peter Bone feel just as uncomfortable having to roll out a bit of carpet, face East and kneel down before council meetings, or would he just do it so as not to offend?